Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison in the Bahamas for the filming of The Beatles’ second film, Help!, released in UK cinemas on 29 July 1965

In the Bahamas

The Beatles on the beach. Though the Caribbean scenes come at the end of the film, they were the first to be shot. The band decamped with the crew to the Bahamas on 23 February 1965, filming on New Providence Island and Paradise Island

Filming the bike-riding scene on the Interfield Road, near to Nassau International Airport on New Providence Island

The bike-riding scene was shot on the first full day of the 14-day Caribbean shoot. Rock lore has it that it was during the filming of this sequence that George Harrison was approached by a Krishna follower and given a book about Hare Krishna that would spark Harrison’s fascination with eastern spiritualism

Much of the film’s beach footage was shot on Cabbage Beach, on the northern side of Paradise Island

More frolics on the beach. Paul has said that the script was written around locations such as the Alps and the Bahamas purely so that the band had an excuse to spend time there

Filming Help! (1965) in the Bahamas. The film’s working title was ‘Eight Arms to Hold You’

Director Richard Lester with the band

George, Ringo and John. The Beatles left the Bahamas on 10 March, arriving back in London early the following day

In the Austrian Alps

Just two days after arriving back in the UK from the Bahamas, on 13 March 1965 the Beatles flew out to Salzburg, Austria to begin filming the film’s Alpine section

The Austrian scenes were filmed at Obertauern, where the band stayed until 22 March

Ringo Starr wearing the sacrificial ring that sets the plot in motion after Ringo accepts it as a gift from a fan, unaware that it belongs to a religious cult

Ringo and John in the Alps

On Salisbury Plain

With the Caribbean and Austrian scenes in the can, The Beatles travelled closer to home, to the Salisbury Plain, to film the famous sequence in which the band play George’s song ‘I Need You’

Ringo during the filming of the Salisbury Plain sequence. By this point in filming, the band’s new single ‘Ticket to Ride’ was number one in the UK charts, offering the public their first taste of the upcoming Help! soundtrack and album